Final Day

The semester went by too quickly! This day was fun and informative because we were able to speak to a few of our classmates about how our final project went. We talked about how we felt that it went, what we would change, the success, and/or things we would add or take out. I learned a lot from my group and their learning styles. It is amazing how much we can learn when working with a group. Although a majority of us are studying to become elementary teachers, each of us have had very different experiences. One of my group members had a unit lesson filled with very fun and engaging activities! I could also tell that she worked hard on compiling so much information for her students. Her lessons were like games, which call the attention of children of all ages, and these lessons help students stay more focused because they are relaxed and stress-free. I try to make the math lessons at my internship playful and hands-on so that I have the students' attention for the most time that I can. I also liked the idea about describing the class using one word. I thought of using that in my classroom for projects, or activities, conducted in class. This course provided countless amounts of resources that I know I will continue to use! This class made me see math as experimenting with numbers and not just: "Here's the calculator, here's a formula - now solve"). Letting them play around with numbers, or better yet, interactive models will teach the concept a lot better than using a calculator. One of the things I enjoyed was the presentations given by the group members and the lessons they came up with! Most of them had my brain working until the correct answer was given. I feel that it opended our minds into viewing math as a more physical style of teaching. The textbook from the class also gives a lot of online reasoures. I loved that because the class I am interning loves the use technology in many new concepts. So, I am able to cruise around these websites and choose from them to find out which will be best to use. Professor Cashman, thank you for making math an interesting subject and providing numerous resources for us future teachers!